Portugal's government labour reform defeated as Chega sides with left-wing opposition

The deciding vote

The government’s proposal to revise labour legislation was rejected in the Assembly of the Republic on 19 June. Only the parties supporting the government (PSD, CDS-PP) and the Liberal Initiative (IL) voted in favour. Chega, the Socialist Party (PS), Livre, the Communist Party (PCP), the Left Bloc (BE), People–Animals–Nature (PAN) and the JPP all voted against, sealing the bill’s fate.

“Our only coalition is with the Portuguese.”

Chega’s last-minute bargaining

Chega had spent the hours before the vote pressing for concessions, including a lower retirement age, restoration of vacation days, stronger protections for breastfeeding mothers, and better conditions for shift workers. Party leader André Ventura met Prime Minister Luís Montenegro twice in São Bento and briefly halted parliamentary proceedings to continue talks. When those demands went unmet, Chega withheld its votes.

“At the 25th hour, deputy André Ventura wanted to jeopardise the sustainability of Social Security. No one plays with the Portuguese’s pensions.”

Ventura dismissed the accusation, insisting the party had been calling for a lower retirement age since May. “The Chega did the work that the PS, unions and PCP failed to do,” he said.

Union voices celebrate

Trade unions welcomed the defeat. The UGT called it “a victory for the trade union movement and for workers,” praising every party that voted against a law it said cut rights, undermined families, and attacked collective bargaining. CGTP secretary-general Tiago Oliveira agreed the outcome was a signal to the government, adding that workers’ struggle over the past 11 months had been decisive.

“It is a signal for the Government. They legislate as if the country were an Excel spreadsheet, forgetting the workers.”

The political cost

The loss derails one of the Montenegro government’s defining legislative projects and leaves it with no parliamentary path to revisit the reform. As the vote result was announced, left-wing benches and members of the public in the gallery broke into extended applause, prompting Parliament Speaker José Pedro Aguiar-Branco to declare the display unacceptable and lament the breach of decorum.